He was born in 274 AH.
From early childhood he set himself to the study of hadith. His grandfather supervised his education, so he heard hadith from his grandfather Maḥmūd ibn al-Faraj al-Zāhid; from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿdān; from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥafṣ al-Hamadhānī, the head of Isfahān; from Muḥammad ibn Asad al-Madīnī, a companion of Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī; from ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Zakariyā; from Abū Bakr ibn Abī ʿĀṣim; from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Khuzaʿī; from Ibrāhīm ibn Rusta; from Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr al-Bazzār, the compiler of the Musnad; and from Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ramlī, from whom he received hadith in 284 AH.
During his travels he heard from many others, among them: Abū Khalīfah al-Jamḥī; Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Marwazī; ʿAbdān; Qāsim al-Muṭarriz; Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī; Jaʿfar al-Firyābī; Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Zuhayr; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Baḥr; Aḥmad ibn Rusta al-Iṣbahānī; Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿUrwah al-Ṣaffār; al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Muḥammad al-Jandī; Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṣūfī; Abū ʿArūbah al-Ḥarrānī; Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Shabīb; Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad al-Wāsiṭī; ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Rāzī; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī al-ʿUmari; Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī; Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar al-Jammāl; al-Walīd ibn Abān; and many others besides.
Among those who narrated from him were: Ibn Manda; Ibn Mardawayh; Abū Saʿd al-Mālaynī; Abū Saʿīd al-Naqqāsh; Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shīrāzī; Sufyān ibn Ḥasankawayh; the ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym; Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Sammawayh; al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad al-Qāshānī; Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Bihruzmardā; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ṣāliḥānī; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣaffār; Abū al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Kisāʾī; and Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad.